Potato plants from my old potatoes are doing better than the seeds one I got.

Beet plants I got from Veseys are covered with those pesky "purple dots" whereas my Walmart-seeds beets are fine (GMO???).

My pepper plants started from Vesey seeds are still funny little things that give me no hopes of ever producing anything.

Parsnips and corn seem to be doing well. So far I seem to be having success with my peas and beans.

Brocoli and cauliflower seeds gave me about 50% germination, I'll see how they turn out at maturity.

My marigold from Vesey are about 18" tall but won't flower.

The sunflowers are about 30-40% germination/survival. About the same with my red onion seeds.

While I can chuck some of this to my overall inexperience, I find it weird that the cheap seeds are doing better than the premium ones.

Take heart...its been a tough year I think for most gardeners. I dont know one gardener who hasn't battled insects, poor growth, poor germination, etc. If it wasnt for Miracle Grow..I'd personally be looking at a weed plot. Even the apple tree got hit with that late spring frost...

I don't know if you were lucky enough to get GMO from Vesey's. Usually GMO's are to expensive for the small gardener to purchase or just specialty items. Companies like putting GMO free on packaging more for marketing...makes some people feel better.

Hopefully next year is a bit better. We are finally starting to see results in the garden now....but nothing like last year. This cold spring, massive precipitation followed by none...really tough to work with...

I guess I am not much of a gardener........I have two tomato plants, and three pepper plants, that's all. Dere's the kicker----a hare ate the peppers, and all but one blossom on the tomato plants dried out and dropped off, no matter how much I watered them. The good news is that Patch the cat caught a hare and left it for s at the foot of our bed, yesterday morning. Have not seen any signs of bunnies since, as they were using our side yard as a playground. Next year, different spot and fenced in.

What a garden year.. We have had rain, more rain and more rain.. We have had over a hundred days of rain out of about 118 days of spring and summer and our temps are down on average by about ten degree's, this week is our first week of true summer heat and its still lower then normal

Something I am on my fourth plantings as round one rotted in the cold wet ground, round two got washed away and round three got bird eaten and finally in some cases round four are up and producing. I also have a very hard time getting some of my regular crops going this year, but here is the thing, in a lot of cases, its the same seed from last year that had 80 to 90 percent germination, and they are germ testing out strong but they are still only giving me 30 to 50 percent in the gardens.. which means its not the seeds, its the year.

Now having said that, most of the gardens in our area are three to four weeks behind across the valley per my big gardening group (there are almost 2000 of us now on it locally) the heat lovers are poor for sure.. but the others are catching up.

I have had a outstanding year on my come agains and on my soft fruits.. I have brought in over a thousand pounds out of the gardens between rhubarb, berries, pea's, broad beans, greens and small quick root veggies.. I am short by at least five hundred pounds and we will see what my final counts are.. my corn is very poor, but my potato's are doing ok and my squash and pumpkin are finally rocking along now..

We will be doing our fall garden planting next week and I have high hopes that we will make up the difference in using very short season root veggies and all my big rows of green beans are in full bloom and I will start picking them daily along with the bowl full of raspberries coming in daily now.

Every Monday the CBC has a call in for half an hour strictly on Gardening. The expert who answers calls is Ed Lawrence. He used to be the head gardner for parliament and I think Rideau Hall also. He answers everything from Vegetables, fruits to exotic plants and grasses.... It is absolutely insane what he knows...and if you have a problem, he ll tell you what to do.

There has been talk recently on the call in show about how this year has had a major increase in molds and fungus on trees due to the moisture, challenges in all areas, etc. Misery loves company.

But that aside, if you want some great free advise...try and catch this show on CBC Radio 1 in Ontario. Well worth it just to listen.

You're right about a rough garden year. The cool and wet start has put a damper on my corn (I finally gave in and fertilized with some blood and bone meal to boost the nitrogen), found potato blight that stunted most of my potatoes after a strong start, and I've been picking Japanese beetles off plants, and I have never seen them on our property previously.

By the way to anyone in Niagara, I just picked up a sweet deal on some rose and fruit bushes. Rice Road Greenhouse had them on sale $5 a plant. Not sure how long the sale lasts but we got 9 rose bushes, 2 grapes, 2 currants, 2 blueberries, and a blackberry.

Does anyone know which suppliers have blight-resistant potatoes, and which varieties? I scraped up a bit of a harvest but many were undersized when I dug them out after the plant died. I've been window-shopping most of my seeds for next year already and I think I've got a nice list mixed from OSC and Heritage Harvest.

I had a nice crop of tomatoes, especially my romas, but I was out of commission after I cut off the tip of my right index finger. No one else in the family is really into canning, so sadly a lot of my tomatoes went to waste and are currently fertilizing the beds.